The Darkroom
My digital inspiration... This is a series of my favorite images I created in my darkroom. Although that old darkroom is now a large computer, I still keep an orange bulb in my lamp, next to me as a reminder of those days. Now if I only had a candle with a fixer scent.
All these images were later toned in various solutions and mixes, I either made myself or pre-made, like Seleniums, Sepias and Berg toners. Much of my work involved removing tones and then painting in others. This took long hours in the darkroom and produced, one of a kind images. No two ever came out the same. What you see is a bit of magic between both worlds. After scanning my prints, I worked on them further, but note I did not alter any colors or tones. I only fixed the levels so that they may look more photographic after the scanning stage. Of course the dust and scratches had to be removed as well.
I believe that having over 18 years of skills in a darkroom was a huge advantage when making the move to digital, especially with the use of PhotoShop. That became more of a matter of time to know the program, then to actually know what to do with it.
I hope these images can also inspire anyone else with a similar quest. My other project "Organics" is a result of this experience.
Thanks for reading.